During one of Britta McOmber’s early fastpitch softball games, she made a rookie error that she laughs about these days.

Instead of waiting for the pitcher to release the ball, the 12-year-old youngster took an early lead and was reprimanded by the umpire. The recent Bothell High graduate, who will play ball at Dartmouth College next year, noted that she never did that again — and ultimately grew from the experience.

“I worked hard in the winter, and in the spring we played more tournaments. The more I played, the more I loved it,” she said. “I’ve always been competitive. I want to play — and win.”

And lead … as in take her team to a higher level of play and show the doubters that her girls can go toe to toe with the best squads. In their final season with Bothell High, senior co-captains McOmber and good friend Lacey McGladrey led the Cougars to third place in the 4A Kingco Tournament despite having some players lacking a wealth of varsity experience.

“I really wanted to continue to get better. Me and Lacey wanted to set a good example, we really pushed the other girls to work hard and we wanted to have a really good season. We were really proud of the way our season went,” McOmber said.

McOmber said she’s always played with a lot of enthusiasm and passion from her shortstop position at Bothell, where she received 4A Kingco all-league honorable mentions her junior and senior years: “I talk a lot, encourage people … and I think it helps everyone feel more comfortable.”

The student-athlete feels she upped her game this year by stepping into a leadership role with the Cougars. She enjoyed the experience and is looking forward to taking her game and outgoing personality to Dartmouth, an NCAA Division I Ivy League school in Hanover, NH.

McOmber’s coach with her Washington Lake Breeze Gold select club, Margo Leiter, knows the coaches at Dartmouth and pointed them in her player’s direction. They traded e-mails and phone calls and watched McOmber play in a tournament about a year ago. Afterward, the discussions began to include education goals and McOmber visited the campus last September and was accepted to the school in November.

This summer, McOmber is preparing for her college experience by playing with the Lake Breeze Gold in several out-of-state tournaments, attending hitting practice with Harvard University assistant coach and Redmond summer resident Brandi Gordon and starting a weight-training and running program.

“A few more tournaments, and then by the middle or end of July, I’ll start taking ground balls so I can keep in good athletic shape,” said McOmber, who plays third base and outfield for the Breeze.

McOmber said she’s come a long way from playing slowpitch softball for the Slugbugs in the third grade.

She’s taken the fast track to the Ivy League, where science classes and lab sessions will be just as important as ground balls and at-bats. She scored a 1,980 on her Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and sported a 3.9 grade-point average at Bothell. Senior year, she earned a Washington Principal’s Scholars Award, Army Reserve National Scholar Athlete honor, a President’s Award for Educational Excellence and a Washington State Honors Award.

“I want to challenge myself and work hard, take hard classes and push myself to succeed and see what I can really achieve,” said McOmber, who will start classes Sept. 22. “I’m really excited to meet new people, to branch out and do what I want to do.

“I’m nervous, too — but I can’t wait.”